Work coming along well in Teaoraereke

Mauri-O!

Hope everyone is doing well on the other side of the globe. Things are going well back here. Elder Wilson and I have been working hard and have gotten quite a few new investigators this past week. What has also been way nice is that people have finally settled down with school starting, so we didn't have anyone move away this past week! It's nice finally seeing our finding efforts starting to show in our teaching pool.

We also had zone conference this past Wednesday. It was great and all, except for the fact that our intake sister, Sister Imari has now finished her time, which means the rest of us elders in our intake have only 6 months left, which is a very scary thought. I can't let it get to me, though. I've got to finish off strong. It's been such an amazing experience serving here in Kiribati. I've learned so much and I've grown to love the people and the culture so much. It's also been interesting to see, looking back, just how much the hand of the Lord has influenced my life and my time here. Everything happens for a reason, but ofttimes we don't understand the reason until much later in life.

Thank you all so much for everything! I tatangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 The baby of our investigators Nansen and Turia

 Missionaries leaving within the next 6 weeks (Sister Imari left on Friday)

 My intake (not everyone, only those who were able to make it for Zone Conference)

Baptism and Dentist D:

Mauri everyone! (That's an emoji in the subject line by the way)

This week has been pretty great. We had a baptism this past Saturday, and it turned out a lot better than the previous one. Vire, a 19 year old girl, was baptized. She lives with her grandmother who is a teacher at Moroni High School. She was a great investigator and a lot of fun to teach.

I also went to the dentist today! They have church volunteers come out to Kiribati every 6 months or so to do dental work for missionaries and prospective missionaries. They basically have to turn a residential room at Moroni into a makeshift dentist's room. I attached a picture. No cavities!

The work has been coming along well in Teaoraereke. We've been getting lots of new investigators, but because of school just starting, people have been moving around a lot. I do know, however, that if we continue to work our hardest, God will bless our efforts. I have a bright vision for this area, and I know that we can get the work going stronger if we put our trust in the Lord.

Thank you all so much! I tatangiringkami! Tekeraoi te tai ni mwaitorotoro!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Everyone at the baptism (it was combined with Teaoraereke 2nd Ward)

 The operating room at the dentist

 Neighbors burning down a tree (pretty sure it wasn't a legal fire)

 Us with Vire at her baptism 

Surprise Change and Rechange

Mauri kain Amerika!

This week has been pretty good and rather eventful. This past Wednesday we had a missionary broadcast about the importance of the Book of Mormon as a conversion tool. Not long into the video, it started buffering a ton. I was lucky enough to be able to use technology skills to help save the day. (For those who understand computer geek, President Larkin had started downloading the video the night before but got interrupted, but he had still copied the leftover file, a CRDOWNLOAD, to his flashdrive. I took that file and changed the extension to MP4 and started up the video. I set the online video to start loading where the downloaded video got cut off.) We were able to watch the rest of the video without any interruptions.

Later that same day, we got a call from the Zone Leaders telling us that two elders would be moving into our house and working in our area with us, likely for a while. Elder Sagara (who is in my intake), and Elder Kairo (a Kiribati visa waiter) came. We gave them half of our area to work. The following Saturday, we got a call from Assistants and found out they would be moving out again. It was interesting having more elders in the house, especially since our house barely fits them. It was nice, though, because they were able to find a couple of new investigators for us while they were here haha. It would be nice to have four elders in this ward consistently, though. I feel like the ward could really use the extra help and would really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for everything! Even if I can't respond to everyone, I really appreciate all of your emails. Letters, too, are also highly appreciated, even if they take like a month to get here haha. I tatangiringkami! Tekeraoi ngkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

  Inside the Betio Sports Complex. It's so huge! It's literally the biggest building I've seen since being in Kiribati. We went there last P-day

 Another pic of the BSC

Elder Anani and I went on an exchange for a day 

(Elder Wilson worked with Elder Dale in Ambo)

Another good week

Mauri everyone!

Things have been going well out here. A lot less stress than last week haha. It's been a pretty normal week. Not much exciting happened.

Elder Wilson got to experience his first bootaki this past week. In some parts of Kiribati they hold a bootaki when a newborn baby's belly button falls off, so we got to attend that celebration for the grandchild of someone in our ward. It was kinda awkward though because they didn't start until 8:30pm (it was supposed to started at 7pm...gotta love Kiribati time!) and had to rush eating and had to make sure that the MC (Master of Ceremonies) knew to release us by 9pm so we could get back home.

Another interesting experience, we picked up a new investigator yesterday. Her name is Ereno. I'm actually still not sure whether she's actually messing with us and is actually a member, but she said she hasn't been baptized yet or lessoned with missionaries, so we're going by her word. She already knows a ton and even knows terms like 'recent convert' and 'area' (in English!) and also knew Thomas S. Monson, so I'm not sure what to think. Hopefully we'll find out the truth soon (aka do a lookup in the membership records haha). She's still a great investigator nonetheless.

I also just wanted to thank everyone for their emails to me. I may not have to time to respond to every email, but enjoy reading all of them and really appreciate your words. Thank you so much! I tatangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Our service. We helped clean out a bunch of trash so they 

could plant banana trees

 A rather blurry picture of all the food from the bootaki we attended

Teaoraereke 1st Ward (our ward)